Solid piece on the TV this evening about car insurance. The hacks got in with a crash for cash scam gang and left cameras in the car they used. Interesting if hardly surprising, all of it.
However the most interesting thing was that these scams aren't the reason for the steep climb in premiums. The main reason - apart, it seems to me, from modern cars with their silly ornamental front and rear panels instead of bumpers - is the tripling over the last ten years of personal injury claims following rear-end shunts, mainly for whiplash injury which is allegedly hard to disprove.
What this seems to indicate, since passive safety in cars has improved continuously, is that at least two thirds of these whiplash claims are fraudulent. And they are made not by criminal gangs but by honest citizens (or snivelling lying petty crooks if you prefer) like you and me. Well, like you anyway.
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>>- is the tripling over the last ten years of personal injury claims following rear-end shunts, mainly for whiplash injury which is allegedly hard to disprove.
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>> What this seems to indicate, since passive safety in cars has improved continuously, is that at least two thirds of these whiplash claims are fraudulent. And they are made not
>> by criminal gangs but by honest citizens (or snivelling lying petty crooks if you prefer)
>> like you and me. Well, like you anyway.
>>
Having been hit from behind, and suffered (suffering) whiplash I'm not so quick to agree.
My daughter and I both ended up with injured necks - I was on a spine-board for a while -whilst my car wasn't badly damaged.
4 years on I still can't turn my head fully to the left.
We were both examined by an independent doctor, who managed to find the root of my pain within seconds although I was worried that due to be time between the accident and the examination, that the injury may have be difficult to prove.
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I was in a Fiesta that was hit behind by an HGV... we didn't get whiplash.
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But I should add that my head was stopped by the metal roof buckling in and cutting my head open :-)
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>> Having been hit from behind, and suffered (suffering) whiplash I'm not so quick to agree.
>> My daughter and I both ended up with injured necks - I was on a
>> spine-board for a while -whilst my car wasn't badly damaged.
In that case your seat and or head restraints were badly adjusted.
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People could get whiplash injuries when seats had no headrests if the impact was violent enough.
Most of the crashes I have had - not all that many actually - were before seat belts and headrests. I was never hurt and never got anything resembling whiplash. Nor did anyone I knew (except perhaps the two or three who perished on the road).
It's a modern American invention and a lot of people seem to have twigged that they can make money by alleging it. My daughter tapped the bumper of a car in front once, so gently that her two children were unaware of an impact and neither car was marked in any way. The other driver, a middle-aged woman, leapt out immediately and stormed up and down alleging whiplash. I think it cost her insurance company four thousand or so.
Naturally I don't think anyone here would be capable of such seedy behaviour. But obviously many are in the outside world.
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Whiplash exists but is reduced by effective head restraints. Some people claim whiplash falsely or exagerate it's effects.
The two are not mutually exclusive.
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Lots of people assumed I'd try claiming for injury etc when I had my accident I mention above. We were lucky to have survived with only minor injuries as it happens. So we left it at that. The lorry driver who's fault it was probably thought I was dead when I was unconscious in the car with blood everywhere - so he will have suffered from that too.
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Mrs B had a rear end incident a few years back. She stopped at a zebra crossing, car behind stopped, but the one behind him didnt. Claim was all very straight forward as local plod were sat in a patrol car on the other side of the road and witnessed the whole thing, and provided a statement.
Mrs B did consider "saying" she had whiplash, but by the following day was in agony and couldnt turn her head. Took about 8 weeks before she was comfortable again, and probably 6 months before all was back to normal.
IIRC she didnt get much compensation - think it was either a grand or 1500 - the bulk of the claim was her lost earnings for the 8 weeks she was off, and the provision of a hire car while hers was in for repair. She needs 7 seats so they supplied an Espace through Avis rather than the usuall corsa
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Mrs B had a rear end incident a few years back... She needs 7 seats...
That must be quite a rear end.
[Coat...hat...wellington boots...large brown paper bag...slinks out sideways muttering something about having a bad day.]
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I haven't the numbers but I strongly suspect the biggest factor in rising premiums, apart from uninsured drivers, is the insurance companies themselves. While complaining that 'accident management' companies force up claims, the motor insurers routinely pass no-fault claims to accident management firms who bung the referring insurer and stitch up the third party insurer.
So they don't like accident management companies except where they get a referral payment and the inflated claim (invariably including an excessive car hire charge and possibly personal injury claim) is inflicted on a competitor.
So they are all doing it to each other, while innocently blaming the ambulance chasers. Some of them even have the effrontery to suggest that the referral income helps to keep claims down.
I have mentioned this before, some time before Jack Straw made a fuss about it recently.
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=4942&m=108813
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13922554
Last edited by: Manatee on Fri 15 Jul 11 at 15:04
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tinyurl.com/5sdy42k
This is why our insurance premiums have increased so much.
Thank goodness for facebook!
Pat
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Insurance costs - swiss tony
